bump down

Thanks! I usually brush up on nettles every week or so (feet and ankles --- one of the drawbacks of going barefoot).
I'll try to remember about the toothpaste :)

Has anyone ever tried baking soda? It's supposed to help on insect stings.

Janet

Touch-Me-Nots a type of wild impatien. The juice helps. We used them when I was working at a daylily farm.

Harrier6pa, I am afraid we don't have Touch-Me-Nots growing nearby. My yard is inside city limits but backs up against the county coverage line for the police coverage. It also backs up against school property of the local elementary school that my kids went to. The only thing I found to get rid of the sting was to use a heat pack as hot as I could stand it on the area that I had the nettle touch.

I have used the leaves of plantain with great results - picked some leaves, crushed them really well, and then wrapped them around the affected fingers like a bandaid. Worked well - I'm glad that plantain is good for something besides taking over my yard!

We grow Aloe Vera for this very purpose. It takes care of all sorts of skin ailments including burns. Bag Balm also is a great thing to keep for skin rashes and stings from mosquitoes and stinging nettle.

When I lived with stinging nettle I also used plaintain as a pain cure. I would find a bunch, smash them with a blunt object [quick - find me a couple of rocks!!] and wrap the stinging parts with the juicy pulp for quick relief.

Yes plantain can be used but crush it with a little olive oil helps to make a paste ...then apply.

The best for stinging nettle however is the "Balsam" Touch Me Not. I did not have it growing in my yard either but wild collected some seed and scattered them in a semi shady somewhat dampish spot and voila!

Signet

Wash your hands well, dry them, and apply Desitin (diaper ointment). The hand immediately feels 70% better, and in about 20 minutes the sting is completely gone. Every time. Works with cat scratches and run-ins with berry prickers too. The skin won't get inflamed around the wound.
It doesn'r sting when you apply it, so it's great for children, who can be afraid of being hurt by topical applications.
~Bunnycat

If you are lucky enough not to touch it at all when stung - it usually goes away within a few minutes (may work better than trying to apply something.) If you do touch it, apply those mentioned - I use the jewelweed/touth-me-nots, but most importantly-do not touch it any more than breifly to apply, if nothing is handy don't do anything and do not touch it. Touching, even slightly, enflames it. The worst thing you can do is scrub it with anything-It will plague you all day by rubbing it in any manner, and in my experience warm water agrivates it as well. The irritant is injected by tiny needles, so washing is useless anyway. Many times I have been stung early in the day and it went away easily, only to come back with a vengence when I took a bath or did dishes.

Oh, the things about gardening we don't look forward to-LOL

I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet, I guess because it's so contrary to what we might think. But, in my experience the sure-fire way to cure nettle sting is...wait for it...the juice from the nettle itself! Just pick a few leaves (with gloves, of course, and no stems), crush and mash them really well to get them juicy, and to crush any stinging hairs, then massage into the affected area. Within about a minute the sting will be no more.

Try it, you'll be amazed how well it works.

Here's how I know: For the past several years I've been treating my hay fever by eating fresh nettle every day in the spring. (I tend a nettle patch in a shady corner my yard.) I used to cook it or make a tea but that became rather tedious. When I read there were fresh nettle eating contests in the UK, I thought I would experiment eating fresh leaves off the plant. I learned to quickly pinch a leaf from the bottom, folding it in half, then jerk it free of the plant, and stuff it in my mouth without touching my face or lips (try not to include any leaf stem). Chew thoroughly, then swallow. Delicious, and totally effective for me as an antihistamine for at least half a day!

Occasionally, though, I would sting my hand by brushing up against a stem (where the worst stinging hairs are). So, after eating five or six leaves I would chew up a final leaf, spit out the pulp, and rub it on the sting. The sting would be gone in literally seconds. When I was stung prior to this it would last for many hours, even into the next day, so I'm not immune or anything.

For some reason the inside of my mouth doesn't get stung, or if it does it goes away very quickly as I chew.

Nettle is one of the most amazingly beneficial plants. Don't get me started on things like compost activation, garden tea, people tea, steamed greens, hair tonic, etc., etc. (I use it for all these things.)

You guys are awesome. I foolishly tried to strip the leaves off some very young nettles I got at the farmer's market (they looked so innocent!) and of course got stung. Googled "cure for nettle sting", chewed up some leaves, pressed the pulp into the sting, repeated a couple times for good measure (I really grabbed those nettles!) and the sting is gone! Hooray!! It doesn't even come back when I press on it, which is great because I need to do dishes tonight.

im only nine and when i got a stinging nettle sting, i found a doc leaf and put it on for a few minutes and, well, it was better.
you could also try putting celatape on and the riping it of.Thats supposed to pull all the hairs/spikes of.

Calamine Lotion

dock leaves or as we call them in scotland doken leaves work a treat

I was weeding a flower box when I brushed it then pulled it up it stung me thought it might be fire weed but google search and pictures proved to be stinging nettle. Very painfully it looked and felt like a hot grease burn. I put soap on and scrubbed it as soon as it happened. WRONG! it made it worse. I put anti itch cream on it and seemed to help a little then I found this page, not any too soon. I tried the first one, toothpaste, worked great. I just could not imagine chewing the nettle after what it did to my hand.

Thank you Hindenburg!

Oops, Huneybunny!

Since I have used this for splinter and cactus needles in the past and didn't see it listed here, I thought I would suggest what worked for my Nettle stings today. I gave the area a good washing with soap and water (very light pressure), then I tried some duct tape to remove the needles and that kind of worked. The biggest help was a layer of Elmer's glue which I allowed to dry completely then pealed it off. The stings were gone. :-)

We always use yellow dock a common weed ( it is everywhere ) Ground up leaves take the sting out of nettle almost immediately.

As a child, I found that the back of the leaf of the common coltsfoot did the trick.They could be found at roadsides or in damp areas

I tried most remedies, but nothing seemed to work. After 6 hours of still experiencing the sting, trying to ignore the pain, I began to read about my recent purchase of ecloths. Zappo. A light bulb went off! I rubbed an ecloth over my fingers about 20 times, then repeated this. The sting disappeared nearly instantaneously! Note that an ecloth is not the same as a microfiber cloth.

Dock leafs are a good one u crush the dock leaf up as this releases the natural chemical in the dock leaf then put saliva on the crushed dock leaf then rub it were you got stung by the nettles

I touched one and it stung horribly, but my cat came up to me smelt my hand and started licking it. I have no idea why my cat did that but it took away the sting. I'm guessing that the weird texture that the cat's tongue has took out whatever quills or hairs i had there.

When I get stung the effects rarely last more than 1 hour

I just barely touched some stinging nettles weeding, and I used my poisen ivy remedy,. Super hot water and soap , the swelling and redness was gone instantly!

The herbal remedy is to grab some Yellow dock leaves , crush or grind in a pestle and apply . Easy , works fast , costs nothing. A friend of mine even used yellow dock on the swelling caused by hogweed and says it works . I have used it on poison ivy and it worked very well.

Just tried toothpaste and it works! Relief more than cure but having just grabbed a handful of nettles to steady myself slipping down an earth bank I'll take what I can get!

Wow, this post is 17 years old. Can't believe it exists.